The Last Thing They Expected
by Ulura
Summary: On one of Lestrade's drug busts the team finds something that shocks and mystifies not only the police, but John as a well. Perhaps Sherlock was not always as cold as he is now. Maybe something made him that way.
1. Chapter 1

Sherlock had bought it on himself really, being his usual arrogant, smart arse self. Not only had he been pushing the police force a tad too much with his comments, Lestrade had caught the man smoking a cigarette the other day after the usual after case dullness set it. It seems the worlds only consulting detective had figured out the that he could actually buy them if he just gave the sellers more money than he used to pay them off in the first place. He had protested and and yelled for the last five minutes that just because he had a cigarette didn't mean he was back on any drugs but it didn't stop the police.

So here they were once again in one of Lestrade's drug busts. He usually only did it to bully the younger Holmes but even John could tell now Lestrade was taking this one a little more seriously. Sherlock was currently sulking, well as close to sulking as Sherlock got, standing by the mantle. John could tell by the way he was standing that he wasn't at all nervous about them finding anything, therefore he was most likely telling the truth. Still, smoking usually meant a danger night and John wasn't going to stop Lestrade, this was the main reason Sherlock shot him a dark look every now and then.

The bust had been going for a good half an hour and John was ready to step in and tell the detective to give it up when a voice made his insides freeze.

"Hey Lestrade, I found something!" Called Donovan, emerging from Sherlock's bedroom and walking back into the sitting room, something silver glinted in the fire light from between her fingers.

The detective held up the object which was revealed to be an almost completely flat, silver rectangle, covered in ornate patterns on both sides. John noticed what little color the man had drain from Sherlock's face.

"Sherlock..." Lestrade and John growled warningly at the same time. The container was too small to contain a needle or liquid canisters but perhaps power or small pills could be hidden there. Donovan and Anderson looked like Christmas had come early, the latter had rushed to the others side, looking at the object with extreme interest. As had most of the impromptu drug squad.

"That is not what you think" Sherlock announced, quickly walking over and trying to snatch the container from Sally, who quickly passed it to Lestrade.

"It's also private" Sherlock growled, with everybody still occupied by the box only John noticed that one of Sherlock's hands had curled into a fist.

"You know the rules" Lestrade argued keeping the flat box out of Sherlock's grasp. His voice was flat and disappointed, John had no doubt that Lastrade was sure Sherlock had fallen back into old habits. John wasn't sure...

"Don't!" Sherlock warned but as the words left his lips Lestrade had already clicked the container open. It turned out not to be a container at all, but a folding picture frame, the kind you can angle and stand somewhere with a picture in each side. Of all the things, John wouldn't of guessed that and going by the drugs squads face, neither did they.

In the right side was an old picture of what was obviously a young Sherlock around the age of nine or ten, sitting at a desk with a microscope on it, looking at the camera impassively. Behind the desk stood a girl maybe a year or two his junior with long black hair, she was smiling.

On the left was a much newer photo which housed Sherlock once more, it couldn't be more than five years old as Sherlock looked almost identical to the man standing in the room. It was much closer up this time, the same girl was there, much older of course, this time she was standing in front of Sherlock leaning back against him. The consulting detective had one arm draped lazily over her shoulder. Both worse soft smiles.

The room was in stunned silence for a good minute before Sherlock snatched the picture frame from Lestrade's hands and snapped it closed, slipping into into one of the deeper pockets of his coat.

"Carry on with your drugs bust if you must" He spoke quietly and all too calmly before grabbing his scarf and tying it round his neck, "John, you'll be getting a text from Mycroft, no doubt he's got this place bugged"

And with that he was gone and out the door before anybody could stop him. Though, with the look of determination he worse, John doubted anybody could of if they wanted to.

"I'm sorry, **what!**" Anderson gaped finally breaking the silence, "The freak had a girlfriend?"

All eyes turned to John, he wasn't sure if it was because they thought he had answers or if they thought he and Sherlock were a couple. Did anybody ever listen to him when he told them he wasn't gay? Thankfully, his phone saved him with a text, from Mycroft just as his younger brother predicted.

_Heard it all. Want an explanation? _

_MH_

John text back,

_Yes, now._

_JW_

_Five minutes_

_MH_

That fives minutes was awful. The drug squad quickly began theorizing over who the girl in the photo was and how she and Sherlock were connected. Donovan even suggested she was some sort of photoshop job, a make believe friend for the lonely sociopath. John had never wanted to hit a woman so badly in his life. Eventually the sound of feet on stairs reached the doctors ears and Mycroft Holmes stepped into the room. By now Lestrade had filled everybody in on his identity, though they seemed surprised by the lack of resemblance between the brothers.

"I take it" Mycroft began, "That somebody looked in the hidden compartment of Sherlock's violin case"

"Yeah" Sally admitted without a hint of remorse, "There is a tiny bit of the case cut out and hollowed so you can hide that frame in it. I didn't realize until the light caught the metal showing through a crack in the casing"

"Come on then!" Anderson urged, "What's with the chick, I didn't know he had the capacity to pick up chicks"

Irene Adler suddenly flew into John's mind, Sherlock hadn't even tried with her and it seemed to work pretty well. It was then he realized the girl from the photo did share similar traits with Irene. Perhaps Irene had reminded Sherlock of the photo girl.

"That _woman" _Mycroft said woman, while glaring right at Anderson clearly not impressed with his english, "Was a good friend of my brothers and none of your concern"

"I thought the mad doctor was his only friend" Sally pointer her thumb at John,he ignored her simply looking back to Mycroft for answers.

"They met as children, she found all of Sherlocks knowledge fascinating and Sherlock enjoyed having somebody who listened to him without insulting him" Mycroft went on, once again letting his eyes slide accusingly to the drug squad.

"This is all past tense" John noted sadly he could feel his guts begin to clench. Mycroft nodded, slowly, John would of said sadly, but, it was Mycroft.

"She helped him with his cases, being the level headed one, the people person, while he was the brains" Mycroft elaborated, "If my brother had the capacity to fall in love I'm sure he would of"

"So what happened?" Lestrade asked before adding with a small amount of hope in his voice, "Where is she now?"

"Dead" Mycroft answered coldly, "They were on a case and it went wrong"

"You can't just say that!" Donovan cried, "How did it go wrong?"

Mycroft didn't grace her with an answer he simply whipped out his phone and typed in a few words, John's phone went off seconds later.

_Fishing docks, storage house 4._

_He'll be there. He needs you. I'll deal with this lot._

_-MH_

John just nodded before grabbing his coat and heading down the stairs, he could still hear Anderson and Donovan whinging about not getting the details. Now he wanted to hit them both, well, more than usual. But he didn't have the time, he needed to find Sherlock.

**This is most likely a two-shot. I've had this character in my head for ages and she keeps changing between being Sherlock's daughter and his childhood friend. I decided to go with the latter obviously :P**

**Sherlock has John as his male friend so I really wanted him to have a female one, one that wasn't trying to flirt or be a love interest. Somebody to be like a sister to him.**

**Please tell me what you think! Reviews inspire me so the second (and most likely final) Chap will be up faster if im inspired!**


	2. Chapter 2

_Sherlock sat up against the tree at the edge of the playground. He never understood why the other children wanted to spend an hour every school day running around, getting sand in their shoes and jumping off swings. Their classes were so slow and dull this was the only time he ever actually got to learn anything of relevance. Of course the other children thought it was strange an eight year old boy spent his lunch breaks reading scientific journals but he was soon learning not to care. _

"_I like your book" Came voice from above him, he looked up to see a girl, with long black hair and blue eyes staring at him from her place in the tree, "But the print is a little small for me to read, what's your name?"_

_He recognized her of course, he knew the faces of everybody at this school, she was in the year below him but he didn't know her name. He never really bothered with names. _

"_Sherlock Holmes, Why are you in the tree?" He asked tiredly, best he got rid of her quickly._

"_Nice name, I'm Clara, I'm looking at the flowers" She replied with a smile, "I noticed that some flowers open and close when the sun comes up and down, I wan't to know why"_

"_You do?" Sherlock questioned, quickly snapping himself out of his surprise. This was a perfect way to get rid of her, "Different flowers open and close for different reasons, including pollination, temperature and sunlight. You see heat makes the petals grow slightly and the sunlight is how plants live due to photosynthesis, meaning they process sunlight and use it as nutrients. Insects, bees especially, land on flowers to spread the pollen and keep the surrounding plant life healthy. Since there is no sunlight or pollen spreading bugs at night the flowers close to conserve energy"_

_Sherlock had expected her to get annoyed at his response or at least get confused, what he hadn't expected was her climbing down from her place on the branch and sitting in front of him, hanging on his every word._

"_That's so cool!" She exclaimed when he finished, "Do tree's and other plants eat sunlight too?"_

"_They don't eat it they process it into energy" Sherlock sighed_

"_Tell me about it" She grinned, a small smile tugged at Sherlock's lips but he squashed it down before taking a deep breath and telling her. _

_..._

_Sherlock wasn't sure if Clara was a friend or not, he'd never had any friends to use as a gauge. Every day for years she would sit under the tree with him and let him tell her all kinds of things, she was interested in everything and anything he could come up with. He taught her how to identify different kinds of birds, why clouds were certain shapes and shades, how cars work and how planes flew. _

_He also taught her how he knew that Bobby had been faking sick and how to tell what part of the playground people had been on by the mud on their shoes and dirt on their shirts. She wasn't very good at it but she understood his methods, that was something. Even when the other children teased and bullied her she didn't seem to care. That was also new, normal people always cared what others thought._

"_They are not important, why should I care?" She laughed_

_It was the same through high school and college, she never got bored, ever. In fact she seemed fascinated by detective work. Mycroft always told him that running around London after criminals and other unsavory kinds were dangerous but they didn't care, it was fantastic. Key word, was. _

_..._

The docks were eerie at night. Nothing but the sound of waves lapping the docks and the occasional clinking of chains holding the boats in place. Finally he made his way to the building Mycroft had specified, it was a good four stories tall, the door had been forced open. That was unlike Sherlock, if anything he'd pick the lock not just break it down. Pulling his jacket around his frame tighter to keep out the cool wind he stepped inside the musty store house. It was empty, obviously in disrepair, the only thing in sight was a rusted stair case, granted not much as in sight. The grime on the windows was thick and blocking most of the moonlight.

He continued up the stairs until he reached the roof. There, leaning against an old, long broken air conditioner was Sherlock Holmes, silver frame open in his hands, Emotionless face staring into the eyes of the past.

...

_Sherlock burst through the metal door onto the roof of the storage wear house. Clara right behind him, slamming the door shut thought it wouldn't do them any good, the dealers were coming up the stairs, they'd reach them in just a few seconds. His homeless network had been wrong._

_It was going to be simple enough, Clara and himself would film the meeting and get proof of the men splitting the city into territories for their business. They could easily take down the five dealers if push came to shove but there were ten. They couldn't do that, they had been caught. Taken down six but the remaining four were on their way up. _

"_Clara stay behind me for now" He warned, "Strike when you can"_

_Now that he thinks back the fight was a kind of blue, he took down two of them, Clara the third, he had turned to finish off the final one only to see him shove Clara toward the edge of the building, she stumbled on the old brickwork trying to get her footing, until there was no more roof for her to stand. _

"Yes John?" Sherlock greeted staring up at him from his seat on the ground. It had been obvious who was checking on him.

"I came to find out what happened" He replied simply, "To her"

"Clara" Sherlock corrected he didn't want to talk about this, but he did, "She fell"

"From here I'm guessing?" John continued not coming any closer. His powers of deduction had improved.

_Clara locked eyes with him for a split second before she fell out of eye line, even four floors up Sherlock could hear the audible crack or bones breaking on hard cement. _

"Is that why your so cold to everybody?" John probed, Sherlock glared. He did care. He cared about John, but what happened after his last friend he had told himself never again, then John ruined it all by becoming his friend. He should be pushing John away, making himself not care.

_Before he even knew what he was doing Sherlock had lunged at the remaining dealer and shoved him off the other side of the building, into the ally way, with the rest of the garbage. Somehow he had made it back down to the ground, taking the stairs three at a time until he was leaning over her, checking for some kind of miracle. _

"You blame yourself" John deduced, sitting down next to him, of course he did.

"It was my fault" he replied dryly, "I dragged her into these things"

"From what Mycroft told me she loved this as much as you do"

That was true, it was obvious she was just as exited as he when they looked at unusual cases. Doing their best not to sound excited when somebody had been murdered in a mysterious way.

"She always went to the funerals" Sherlock started, looking at the sky, "Any time we had fun running all over the city chasing murders she'd go to the funeral of whoever it was who died. Too much empathy"

"Sounds perfect for you" John laughed, for some reason that made Sherlock feel better. He remembered when he first met John, he had said his deductions were amazing. He was the second person in history to ever think so.

"_I don't have friends, I've just got one"_

"Come on we had better go back" John urged.

"Not while that 'drug squad' is there" Sherlock growled

"I'll let you punch Anderson in the face"

"Come on, taxis are hard to land this time of night!"

**I'm glad I got this character out of my system. **

**Do you think I should write another version of this with Sherlock having a daughter? That was the original idea with it seemed very OOC so I went with this. But if enough people like the idea I'll go for it. **


End file.
